Coastal Carnival to make waves in downtown Sacramento

Jason Pham

Anchors aweigh! An underwater circus featuring performances from mermaids, aquatic trapeze artists, sea clowns and more is coming to town this weekend.

The Coastal Carnival event, which will be held at Dive Bar on Feb. 20 and 21, invites grown-up guests to watch a free 45-minute-long underwater performance in the 7,500-gallon, 40-foot-long aquarium spanning the downtown bar’s entire ceiling. The narrative behind Coastal Carnival follows the story of a group of mermaids who imagine themselves as circus performers after coming across a sunken ship that went down with a circus troupe in it.

“It is the first time that an underwater circus of this nature has been done in [over a century],” says Virginia Hankins, who performs as Catalina Mermaid for event co-producer, Sheroes Entertainment LLC. “There was an underwater circus in the Victorian times, but no one has done anything like it in decades. That’s what’s pretty special about it.” (According to Hankins, the last underwater circus where mermaids performed in tanks in front of audiences was the “Neptune’s Daughter” show at The Hippodrome in New York in 1906.)